The University of Southampton is to go ahead with a high-speed campus multimedia network with the help of a Pounds 1 million system funded by IBM.

The network, built around an IBM SP2 massively parallel processing system, will use Asynchronous Transfer Mode technology to allow staff and students to access multimedia projects, including the innovative HiDES historical database, on campus and at other institutions.

The project funding was secured by Tony Hey, head of the high performance computing group at Southampton. His team is working with the multimedia research group to provide access to large-scale multimedia projects, using the Microcosm information management system developed by the MRG.

Wendy Hall, professor of computing science and head of the MRG said: "We will offer users the ability to make cross references between different journals and other databases.

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"Many users tackle multimedia projects by simply translating the paper-based material into a form which mirrors that digitally. This is not the way forward."

The MRG will install Fore Systems' ATM switches and adaptors, sourced from distributors K-Net.

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Users will be able to access and link a variety of documents and materials created in diverse software applications, using the overarching Microcosm software.

Professor Hall's research group also will work with the high performance computing group to produce a World-Wide Web beta version of the linking service by the autumn.